


Hallows

by Abrus



Category: Halloweentown (1998)
Genre: Absentee mother, All 4 movies are covered, Dark Magic, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Halloweentown - Freeform, I never liked Gwen anyway, Is it obvious, Light Magic, Marnie and Luke Were Canon Damn It, Mention of substance abuse, The kids grow up in Halloweentown with Aggie, even the travesty of a 4th film, gray magic, it changes a lot, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-01-04 18:57:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21202469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abrus/pseuds/Abrus
Summary: Marniselae "Marni" Cromwell grows up in Halloweentown under the watchful eye of her Grandma Aggie, with her brother Dylanearus and her sister Sophronia. Leaving her flighty mother and the Mortal World behind should be easy, but as forces of evil grow and family secrets are unveiled, Marni will have to accept and unite the two worlds in order to save them both.(Originally posted on fanfiction.net)





	1. Chapter 1

"I, Marniselae Cromwell, do hereby invoke the Powers of Darkness! Come hither to my aide!"

There's complete silence except for the breeze rustling through the trees all around them. Marni shivers in her thin cloak and squints through a tiny sliver of an opening underneath her eyelids. Luke's red eyebrows are raised skeptically.

Nope. Nothing.

"_I_, _Marniselae Cromwell_, do hereby invoke the _Powers_ _of Darkness_!"

Marni can usually feel when her magic is working, and it most definitely isn't.

Luke doesn't think so either. "Marni, I don't think it's working."

He's only just recently started to call her Marni, and even though he's being annoying, she smiles at him. She's known him for her entire six year existence, but the etiquette of Halloweentown demands that the members of her _very important family_ be called by their full names. She always grits her teeth when she goes into town and everyone calls her grandma Aggie "_Agatha_".

She really does like her full name though. It sounds awesome when she's trying to invoke stuff. The Powers of Darkness are her favorite.

The sun is shining rather cheerfully though; everyone knows the Powers of Darkness aren't all that in to sunlight. And she's technically still on her grandmother's property. Grandma Aggie had to put wards up guarding against the use of especially strong spells a few weeks ago because Dylan had accidentally blown his potion up again and burnt down half the kitchen.

Maybe if they just go far enough into the woods surrounding the house…

"It's alright though," Luke shrugs. "You can always get me another toy car the next time you visit your dad."

Marni rolls her eyes. "That's like, a _whole Mortal year_ from now."

"Oh. Yeah. Right."

Marni sniffles and kicks the ground with her boot. It's the first year she's been allowed to buy the ones with the tiny square heel on the bottom. She loves the pointed toes. She feels like a grown-up witch in them.

"I'm really sorry I can't find it Luke."

Luke senses the oncoming meltdown and quickly intervenes. "Marni, it's _fine_. It'll turn up eventually!"

"But I should be able to do this! I'm supposed to be a good witch! I have to complete my training when I'm _thirteen _Luke! Grandma Aggie has to have me to carry on the Cromwell Line. Stupid Dylanearus just sits and reads his dumb Magic Theory books all day. He can't do magic at all-"

"Marni, he's only _five_-"

"And Mommy wouldn't even come and visit this year. She won't come back for a really long time, and she's already lost a lot of her magic. She couldn't even-"

"_Marniselae!_"

She doesn't let the formal name stop her though. She's always liked the Goblin accent that Luke puts on her name anyway. She just plows right on. "She couldn't even do a simple Levitation spell Luke! _Baby stuff_. I was doing those at age two! _Two_! What if I end up a _dud like that_?! What if they kick me out of Halloweentown because I turn _human?!_ Oh my Merlin, what if…"

Marni trails off, the possibilities just too horrible to consider. She refuses to think about it. She just can't. Instead, she bursts into tears.

Luke stands there with his hands in his pockets, looking worried and somewhat frightened. At eight years old, and a Goblin at that, he has no idea what to do with a sobbing witch. He hates how sad Marni is whenever she goes to visit her mortal father and flighty witch mother in the Mortal World every Halloween. She comes back even more melancholy than when she left.

This is the worst she's ever cried though.

"Marni, it's going to be okay," he says softly, and slowly brings his arms around her skinny little shoulders.

The breeze in the trees stops. The leaves go silent, and the world seems to hold its breath for the moment Marni remains tense against his shoulder and neck.

And then she sighs and hugs him back, relaxing under his hold. Time begins again. "Do you think I'm a bad witch, Luke?"

"No. I'll never think that."

"Even if I grow sixteen warts like Aunt Harriet?"

"Hey! Harriet is really nice!"

"I didn't say she isn't nice."

"She's not a bad witch. You won't ever be one, either. Warts or no warts. Besides, warts are hardly the grossest body part in Halloweentown, Marni."

After a moment, Luke pats her back somewhat awkwardly and takes her by the hand. He leads her around the side of the house and through the giant gate in the front. They sit on the rocky ledge on the side of the hill.

Luke watches the creatures mill around the streets, pointing out the funny actions of some.

Marni has eyes only for the square's giant pumpkin.

* * *

Luke is at the Cromwell House with his mother, having a nice lunch with Aggie (it's still weird to call her that), when it happens.

All of a sudden, there's a beating on the door, and Aggie frowns because she didn't even feel someone coming. She rushes to it and throws it open and there stands Benny. He's parked the car haphazardly across the lawn, and the front gates are askew from barely having the time to jump out of the way of the yellow cab before it crashed into them.

"Aggie, come quick. It's the kids."

It's the first time Luke has seen Benny somber, and it's the first time he's seen Aggie move that quickly. He doesn't even think about it; he's up and following her out the door and into the cab before he's even registered what's going on.

"Please watch the house!" Aggie calls out to his mother.

Benny speeds so quickly down the hill and zigzags so fast through the two streets to the town square Luke has to peel himself off the seat when the cab finally stops.

There's Marni, in the middle of the square, with practically everyone in Halloweentown watching as she screams, and screams, and screams. She hasn't even been gone four hours Halloweentown time yet to visit her parents in the Mortal World. She's writhing against her mother, fighting the strong hold she has on her, and sobbing so hard she can't breathe.

Dylanearus and Sophronia are clutching each other near the giant Jack-o-lantern, both crying and shaking.

Something terrible has happened.

Luke makes himself move when Aggie reaches Marni. Her mother instantly lets go of her, and Marni would have hit the ground had Luke not dived instinctively to catch her. He takes the brunt of her fall, and she curls into him and howls in a way that sounds more like a banshee than a witch.

"Gwendolyn! What-"

"It's William, Mother. William is gone. I don't know why I didn't think of it before you sent her, but it's been a few months since the accident and you know we split ages ago-"

"You! You inconsiderate- I can't _believe_ you're _my daughter_! To be so careless with your own children. I _knew_ I made the right decision when I insisted you leave their raising to _me. _You're not nearly stable enough to-"

"Well it's not exactly as though there's a telephone between this godforsaken place and _my world_-"

"Your world?! _This _is your world, Gwen! _This_!"

Marni has stopped wailing, and is now merely keening low, mournful sounds in her throat. Luke is thirteen now, the age Marni is so eager to reach herself. He knows more about comforting girls than he did when he was younger. But this is out of his hands. He doesn't know how to end grief like this.

He hears a tiny sniffle behind him amid the screaming of the Cromwell matriarchs. He turns and sees Sophie reaching out for him. It's the first time he's been able to think of her as Sophie. She's always been like a tiny little princess to him, deserving of her regal title. And Dylan has always been too irritating to think of him as anything but Dylanearus, but seeing him now with tear tracks down his stoic face and shaking knees, Luke can't help but think of him as a friend.

He holds his hand out to both of them. Sophie rushes to him, about to collapse down next to her sister, but he stops her. He looks up at Dylan, staring into his eyes through his giant glasses and sharing the grief there. It hurts more than anything to see Marni like this.

"Help me get her up."

Dylan doesn't say anything, just reaches down for his big sister. She blindly grasps his hand, and he pulls her up with Luke's help. When she's steady and leaning on Dylan, Luke bends and scoops up tiny Sophie.

Together, they limp like refugees to the backseat of Benny's cab. He's already sitting in the driver's seat, and tries to crack a joke about the spectacle Agatha and Gwendolyn are still making in the town square. None of them laugh.

Aggie's spell against her own daughter takes all of them by surprise.

"_I relegant tibi vos ingratus puera ex domo et ex hoc loco_!"

Marni has been studying Latin spells recently. She knows what her grandmother has done.

She watches with stinging eyes as her mother is violently dragged from the square by some invisible hand and forcibly shoved into the yellow bus.

Its tires screech as it skids against the ground and back up into the sky, vanishing entirely from view.

Marni isn't sorry to see it go.

* * *

It is a week before Marni's thirteenth Halloween. She was born on the summer solstice, and had a birthday party then, but tonight is her _debutante_ ball, where she'll showcase all she's learned throughout her training before it officially comes to an end in seven days. It's something she's been looking forward to for her whole life, and talking nonstop about since her birthday.

She's never been more excited for anything in her entire life.

Luke, however, is miserable.

His nose is too big. His ears are way too pointy. His hair is twice the normal shade of red, and his skin is incredibly pale. He's somewhere between average and tall, and more than a bit gangly. His arm muscles are too defined for his mediocre chest.

He is literally an ugly Goblin in the midst of the handsomest of warlocks.

They're all lined up along the staircase in Aggie's house, waiting to receive the witch of honor, as is custom. He's across from Dylan at the end of the two lines; it's supposed to be a huge honor for a non-relative. Being one of the two boys at the end signifies a very close relationship with the celebrated witch. But all Luke can think of is the fact that Marni will have to walk past all of those attractive, snooty warlock bastards and then meet his ugly mug at the end. What a let-down that must be for her! To have all of these guys waiting on her, and then walk into the ball on the arms of her dorky brother and a disgusting Goblin.

He stands and fidgets with the collar on his dress robes until Aggie comes to stand between the two lines on the first stair. Sophie is standing on her right, holding tightly to her hand and smiling shyly at the hundreds of gathered guests. Astrid, Harriet's half-elf granddaughter, is on Aggie's left, smiling proudly. Marni is a bit of a protégée of hers; Astrid taught her how to walk in sparkly heeled boots and put on copious amounts of eyeliner.

"I would like to thank all of you for attending this special occasion in the House of Cromwell. The eldest Daughter in the most recent generation of the Cromwell Line has reached the end-point of her training on the cusp of her thirteenth Halloween. I think that you will all be proud to welcome this most accomplished young lady officially into the society of Halloweentown. I am pleased to present my granddaughter, Marniselae Cromwell. "

Everyone claps politely, but in the confined space of the house it sounds like patters of thunder.

When Marni comes around the corner, Luke's heart stops in his chest and crashes through the floor.

She's dressed head-to-toe in black, and her dress clings to her upper body before fanning out in a plethora of spider-web-lace skirts. Her sleeves are wide and form a point that brushes the bottom of her skirt. Her hair is down in wave after wave of curl, very unlike her usual ponytail, and a black sparkly witch's hat sits atop her head. But the most beautiful thing about her is her eyes. He's never seen her with so much fire; so much passion; so much brilliant _life._

She smiles the widest when she reaches him. Her eyes only skim over the various warlocks that are staring at her as though she's the sun, moon, and universe all in one.

Her magical display is performed with perfect precision. She's several years ahead of where any thirteen year old witch has the right to be. He knows that memorizing spells is her weakness, but she doesn't stutter once over the Old Welsh, Latin, English, or Gaelic. The spells she cast burst into being over the heads of the people in the audience. He's never seen anything so spectacular. He could swear she's glowing herself the entire time.

The next morning, he kneels enthusiastically on the floor in front of the Shadow Creature. When the evil thing touches him on the shoulder, asking if he's ready, the reply that's been on the tip of his tongue since laying eyes on Marni the night before spills from him almost without permission.

"I am yours."

He feels an odd feeling slide over his entire body; almost like a slippery wet eel gliding along his skin.

When he reaches up, the tips of his ears are round. He is beautiful.

Marni hasn't been back to the Mortal World since her father's death and her mother's public humiliation. The Shadow Creature can take her back when he conquers it. And Luke can go with her, as a Mortal, a creature she loves but can never be, next to her in a world she can never belong to. He can be human for her.

* * *

Marni hates the way Luke has changed.

He's ditched her on several occasions since her ball, and when she does catch glimpses of him, he looks nothing like himself. He looks like a _human_. He's running with a gang-like group of boys, and causing mayhem all over Halloweentown.

All she wants is her friend back.

She knows it's shallow, but she tries to cast a spell from her room at home in the new cauldron Astrid gifted her with. She tries to turn his nose back to normal. It was the most wonderful nose in all of Halloweentown.

Something blocks her spell. Something big, and dark, and chaotic. Something very, very evil is surrounding Halloweentown this brilliant morning.

Her grandmother appears in the doorway when she's through. There's a disturbed, knowing look in her grandmother's eyes.

"It's the Bad Thing, isn't it?" They've been keeping an eye on it in the Witch's Glass for almost a year now.

Grandma Aggie nods. "I'm afraid it is, my dear."

Marni takes a deep, shuddering breath. Astrid had been expressing concern over Harriet's changes. Now the Bad Thing has taken hold of Luke, too. It can't go on any longer. Her training is over. It's time to take her place as the most powerful Cromwell in centuries.

She looks at her grandmother and tries to smile a bit, but it comes out as a grimace. "Alright, Grandma. Go get the talisman."

Aggie smiles, thoroughly delighted in spite of the circumstances. Marni is turning out to be a very fine witch indeed.

* * *

"I think we should pay your mother a visit."

Marni freezes and snaps her head up to stare in disbelief at her grandmother.

"Are you _high_?!" she shrieks. It's possibly the most offensive thing she's ever said to an Elder.

Aggie blinks at her. "No, of course not. I haven't been high since 1967. Oh, those were the days, although the Code _was _being challenged along with the Man and-"

"Grandma," Sophie interrupts. Her bottom lip is quivering.

Aggie sighs, and reaches out to squeeze Dylan's shoulder. He violently shrugs her off, and she frowns. "My dears, you must understand… The Cromwell line is strongest when all of the Cromwells are together. This type of evil requires the most forceful of Light. We need Gwen."

"Well Gwen has never needed us!" Marni snaps. "Otherwise she'd be here. This is Halloween. She's had hours in the Mortal World to come and visit."

"I know. I know. But we must try. Grab your cloaks, come along."

Aggie snatches her deep ruby-colored cloak and briskly strides out the front door. Sophie sighs and slings her green one around her shoulders, an old hand-me-down of Marni's. Dylan grabs a blue one that he's rapidly outgrowing.

Marni snarls in rage and snaps her brand new cloak around her shoulders. It was a coming-of-age gift from Astrid, and apparently the latest fashion, all black velvet with spider-web-lace strings. It settles around her shoulders like a black cloud to represent her mood. She fingers the moonstone around her neck that's very similar to the one around her grandmother's throat. All witches receive one upon their thirteenth birthday. It's her most prized possession.

She doesn't let go of her necklace the entire way into town. They pass by the movie theater, Luke's new hangout. He isn't there, though, and Marni has to force down the lump in her throat and let go of her stone, because Luke helped Aggie pick it out for her.

She boards the bus without stumbling once on her boots; at one inch, they have the highest heel she's worn yet.

* * *

Hours later, Marni storms off of the bus, still fuming. She's so angry she doesn't see Harriet, and barrels right into her.

"Oh, my Merlin, Harriet! I'm so sorry!" she gasps.

Harriet grabs her elbow to steady her and smiles very kindly. "Watch out, Marni! Wouldn't want to spill the muffins. Actually, would you like one? I baked them early this morning and thought I'd take them down to the Headless Shelter for breakfast. Didn't occur to me that they couldn't eat them; no heads!"

Harriet cackles, and Marni manages a weak smile. It's still morning here in Halloweentown. In the Mortal World, it had been dark outside, and there had been mortal children running every which way, dressed in a mockery of her world. Even there, with everyone dressed up, they'd stuck out. Amid all the cheap costume fabric, not meant for everyday wear, they'd been in real clothes. Marni's deep purple dress had been ogled by many girls, and a group of boys dressed like cowboys and Indians had winked at her. Granted, she is wearing a fuller skirt than she does most days, but it _is_ officially Halloween, and her thirteenth at that. More ruffles than usual aren't _that _conspicuous.

Dylan is still ranting about how the same group of boys that had winked at her had pointed and hooted at him; Dylan had left the house in pants similar to mortal jeans, a warlock's tunic printed with stars, and a casual cloth pointed hat. What wouldn't be blinked twice at here in Halloweentown had been considered odd in the mortal world, even on Halloween.

"_What are you supposed to be, _they asked," Dylan huffs, tugging Marni away from Harriet. "What were _they_ supposed to be? Wanna-be centaurs and fauns?"

Marni waves goodbye to Harriet, and yanks her arm away from Dylan. She doesn't see Aggie or Sophie anywhere, so she assumes they both went home.

Dylan and Marni hail Benny down and climb in the backseat.

"Where to?"

"Our grandmother's house, of course. Where else?"

"Over the river and through the woods. Gotcha."

Benny will never understand that he is not, in fact, hilarious. But Marni always makes sure to at least giggle at his jokes. He tries so hard.

They see their grandmother on the street on the way, busy comparing prices at the market. There's always a giant vendor festival on Halloween. It goes on into the late night. They ask Benny to pull over, and Marni briefly wonders where Sophie has gone off to (probably the ice cream shop, the Abominable Snowman always gives her free cones) when she spots them.

_The brooms._

Out of cauldrons, cloaks, ritual daggers, ancient spell books, heeled boots, pointy hats, and candy bats, the one thing she wanted most in the world hadn't been gifted to her at her coming out ball. She'd wanted a broom of her very own since she was younger than Sophie, and right there they are, next to the movie theater, just waiting for her.

"Grandma!" Marni gasps, and rushes over to them. She runs her fingers over silver sticks and multicolored bristles.

"Oh, yes," Aggie says, with a twinkle in her eye. "I suppose it _is_ the rite of passage for a witch your age. Silly me. I forgot."

Marni understands that her grandmother wanted her to have this last, most wonderful gift on her actual thirteenth Halloween. Marni understands, and she almost cries.

The vendor winks at her. "Wanna try one out?"

Marni nods eagerly, but then senses someone behind her. She whirls around, and there for the first time in days stands Luke. His red hair is much tamer, and his nose is perfectly small and average. His ears are disgustingly round. Marni thinks he looks hideous and puny in comparison to his old striking Goblin features.

Dylan frowns, sensing the same strange darkness that she does, and moves to step in front of her. For the first time in a while, she feels a rush of affection for her younger nerdy brother.

"Well, well. What do we have here? Little baby _Marni_, out shopping for her very first broomstick."

He's never twisted her nickname like that, in a way meant to be disrespectful and mocking. She hates it. She hates this Luke. Her heart is twisting inside her chest and bleeding at the seams.

Aggie frowns. "_Luke_."

Luke just snorts. "Cool it, Grandma."

Aggie gasps in indignation, but she backs off. This is Marni's fight.

Marni snarls. "What do you want, Luke?"

He smirks. "Come on, Marni. Don't be like that. You and I both know I've turned into a bit of a _big cheese _around here. Let's go grab a cone. I know the Abominable Snowman's place down the street is your favorite."

Marni's face darkens, and she takes a threatening step forward. She raises her chin and squares her shoulders in that aristocratic, Cromwell way. "You know, I was kind of hungry, but then I smelled something _nasty._ It must have been the _big cheese_."

She hears Aggie snort behind her, and gives Luke a smirk of her own.

But then Luke's face falters, and there's pain and confusion and a strange sort of sadness. Aggie puts her hands on Marni's arms and gently pulls her away from Luke. "Perhaps another time," Aggie says kindly.

Dylan feels the most betrayed out of all of them though, and Hades will freeze over before he lets anyone hurt his sister. Luke had been his only real friend, and now he's running around with the guys that pick on him every solstice. Dylan steps forward, in front of Marni entirely, and smiles dangerously. He might not have a lot of power, but what he does have is very volatile. He can feel his fingers start to tingle, and knows it's only a matter of seconds before the blue sizzling light appears. "Yeah," Dylan snarls, agreeing with his grandmother, "like _never_."

Aggie raises an eyebrow and peers down at Dylan, surprised that her grandson would be so outspoken and angry. She's never known him to be so quick to cut ties. After the death of his father and the public spectacle Aggie and Gwen had made, Luke and Dylan had been almost like brothers.

Luke immediately jumps to his own defense. He rarely ever got angry at Dylan, but when he did, the sparks flew from him, too. "You know what, if you people were smart, you'd be _nice_ to me. I'm friends with some very powerful creatures around here."

He backs away, tripping over broomsticks as he goes. Marni aches as she watches him disappear around the corner of a building.

"Oh, that Luke dude. He's turned into _such_ a wiener," the vendor says, trying to lighten the mood. Marni laughs a bit, but her grandmother is still staring after Luke with way too much concern.

Marni purchases the Windsweeper 5000, a beautiful broom with red, orange, and yellow chrome detailing. Marni's favorite Halloween colors.

Her grandmother smiles at her. "Now your training is _officially_ complete. Would you like to show off your broom riding skills?"

Marni grins. "Only if you come with me."

Aggie claps her hands in delight, and Marni kicks off into the bright blue sky.

* * *

"If you marry him, I am _not_ calling him _Dad_," Marni snarls, staring out the window of the mayor's office and into the street.

She's known Kalabar for what seems like most of her life, but she never truly knew him until now.

She is going to _kill_ Sophie for staying behind in the Mortal World and making it necessary for Gwen to come bring her back. Now Gwen is stuck here because the busses aren't running. She's already almost started _another_ confrontation with Aggie in the street.

Marni will never live in the Mortal World. Marni will never become her mother- a coward that gave up her children in order to pursue a life with a Mortal man, and then asks for them back when life without the Mortal man proves to be too much to bear.

Sophie would become human. Dylan would become human. And though Marni loves to study the culture, and even embrace it, human is what they will never be.

Halloweentown is their home, and she wants nothing more than to send the intruder back.

Sophie comes to stand by the window with her. Dylan sits on a chair next to them, his chin on his knees and his glasses slipping off. They all refuse to look at their mother.

"Look," Sophie says after several moments of awkward silence. "Grandma is following the wiener."

Marni's eyes snap to where Sophie is pointing. Her grandmother is following Luke into the old movie theater. The dark, foreboding feeling inside of her swells and swells. She glances at Dylan, and knows he feels it too.

Marni takes off running.

* * *

_Mom!_

The word keeps ringing over and over in Marni's ears. She clatters down the steps and her heel gets wedged in the lattice work on the bottom one, tripping her. She falls hard to her knees, and whimpers.

_Mom!_

She had never understood what being a trained Cromwell matriarch meant. She had never realized her position as a sworn protector of the Light, until now.

Going up against that Shadow Creature will be the hardest thing she has ever done. She keeps reliving the moment when her grandmother fell, sparks flying underneath her skin, and then her mother. She keeps hearing her own scream in her head. She never thought she'd care so much about seeing her mother get zapped.

And Luke. She couldn't do anything against Luke. She had watched as he jumped to his feet, watched as her mother used her shaky, faulty powers to wrap him in flowered vines. But for all her training, she hadn't been able to use her powers against him. Not Luke. Not her best friend.

What kind of a best friend sells his soul to a Shadow Creature and delivers her grandmother up on a silver platter?

Marni doesn't stop shaking until she feels a tiny hand resting on her shoulder. She looks up to see a tear-stained Sophie.

"I want Mommy and Grandma."

Marni takes a deep, shuddering breath, and wipes her stinging palms together. There are tiny pieces of gravel embedded in her skin, but not as much blood as she thought there would be.

"I know. And I am going to get Mommy and Grandma back."

"Awesome!" Dylan intervenes, clearly still panicking. "Now let's get out of here before that shadow thing gets us too!"

"No," Marni shakes her head slowly, taking deep breaths and reaching for clarity. Her training is kicking in. Her grandmother has spent the past thirteen years preparing her for this moment. "No. It won't follow us. It was hurt by the sunlight."

"We need to get back home," Dylan says.

"Not yet. There are some things we need to get first."

Dylan scoffs in disbelief. "You're going to do some shopping? _Now_?!"

"We have to finish the witch's brew Grandma and I have been working on. She got the talisman out this morning." Marni nods.

"I don't know…" Dylan bites his lip, but he follows dutifully behind them when Marni and Sophie walk back onto the street.

* * *

This _would _be the _one spell_ Marni doesn't have memorized yet.

She's filled the talisman up. Getting the ingredients had been the most sneaky, underhanded thing she's ever done. Usually she just orders her ingredients from the apothecary and has them shipped to the house, but she needs them fresh today, and she needs them _now_.

But she's tried every incantation and invocation she can think of, and _nothing_ has made the light in the talisman go on.

"Some witch you are!" Dylan snaps in frustration.

Then Sophie starts singing, and Marni begins to smile.

* * *

"Out of my way, Luke."

She has never been angrier or more hurt in her life.

She's changed her clothes into a flowy orange, pink, and purple tunic, and put on more sensible shoes. If she's going to be climbing the Jack-o-lantern, she really doesn't want to have to worry about her heels. She grabbed her grandmother's cloak on the way out of the house, a loose plan forming in her mind. Almost all of Halloweentown had seen her out and about today. She can't be recognized.

Her siblings are already hiding. Her heart is beating out of her chest. She can sense the Bad Thing getting closer and closer. She doesn't have much time.

"Marni, you have to listen to me!" Luke growls as she tries to sidestep him. He grabs her shoulders and slams her against the brick wall behind her, effectively trapping her. "Look, I didn't know he was going to do that to your mom and grandma. I would _never_ have-"

Marni rolls her eyes. She really doesn't have time for this. Her magic is humming in her veins in response to the darkness in the air. "Save your tricks, twerp, okay? I'm _busy_."

She tries to move around him again, but he doesn't let her.

"Marni! He's the one that's tricking you, alright, this is all a trap! He tricked me too. He said all he wanted was the talisman, and then he'd let your grandma go."

He's so different. But his earnest blue eyes are the same.

She still doesn't have time for this. The sky is darkening by the second. "I said, _get out of my way_-"

It's too late. Clouds rush in, clouds darker than any normal cloud would have the right to be, and lightning strikes the top of the court house. The wind picks up and brushes Marni's bangs across her forehead.

Luke shudders. "He's coming!"

Then Luke is pushing her down behind some hay, and Marni doesn't even bother with protesting. She's shivering inside of her cloak, and all of the darkness is leaving a bitter taste on her tongue.

A swirling cloud drops the Shadow Creature onto the roof. Almost all of the creatures of Halloweentown are present; today is Halloween, and the festivities of the night are about to begin. Apparently they've been delayed.

"My fellow creatures-!" The demon begins.

Marni glances back to where her siblings are hiding, to Luke, and to the Jack-o-lantern.

"I offer you a chance to return to the days of glory. To end this exile from the mortal world, which the _humans_ have forced upon us! Follow me, my fellow citizens of Halloweentown. Too long we've been exiled to this second-class world!"

To her horror, Marni watches as certain creatures nod in agreement. Can't they see what is going on here? Don't they know the evil this creature possesses?

Marni raises the talisman, studying the glow. She frowns in determination, and cuts her hard gaze to Luke. He looks petrified. "I've got to install this thing before it's too late."

The Jack-o-lantern is dark, and with its darkness, so arises the darkness in the creatures of Halloweentown. If she lets this continue, there will be nothing to stop their darker natures from taking over entirely.

And then there are gasps from the crowd; she looks up to see not the Shadow Creature spewing hateful propaganda, but…

"Kalabar!" Marni gasps. She whips her head around to glare accusingly at Luke. "You _knew_?!"

"Marni, I made an awful mistake. So let me try to make up for it."

* * *

Marni sobs with every pained groan of Luke's underneath the hood of her grandmother's cloak. She's running through the crowd, pushing and shoving. _Almost there…_

Kalabar keeps shocking her best friend, and she has to install this talisman and banish him to get it to stop. The weight of the entire dimension is on her shoulders. What if she doesn't make it?

She's on top of the pumpkin before she hears it. Luke's cry is anguished.

"_NNNNNOOOOOOO!_"

She gasps and for a split second meets Kalabar's crazed eyes. She has only a nanosecond to get the talisman out of her pocket, and then she is hit.

She cries out as the ball of power hits her lower back. She always has defensive wards around her body just in case, but these blue bursts break through them as though they are nothing but wax paper. She feels all of her nerves sizzle and burn. The feeling intensifies every time she is hit.

Darkness dances around her eyes, and she goes limp.

No one is coming to save her now.

No one is left.

It is just her. Her, and thirteen years' worth of Cromwell training.

She can feel the last of her defensive barriers drying up. Soon, she'll be unconscious entirely.

Voices slide inside of her ears, reaching her brain through her haze.

_Some witch you are!_

_Let me try to make up for it._

_All you have to do is want something, and then let yourself have it!_

_A simple Levitation spell Luke! Baby stuff! I was doing those at age two!_

She uses the last of her energy to drop the talisman.

Her Levitation spell flips it, and it lands with a dull thud in the bottom of the Jack-o-lantern.

_LIGHT_.

Light is everywhere. It bursts up and out, sweeping away clouds and darkness and doubt. It nearly blinds her, even with her eyes closed. She can feel the beautiful light burn all the bad stuff boiling in her blood away.

Kalabar screams. He falls.

Marni opens her eyes.

* * *

"_Grandma!_"

"_Mom!_"

Sophie hurls herself at their mother. Gwen stumbles with the weight of the small girl, then quickly rights them both. She presses kisses to Sophie's hair. It is the first time Marni has seen her mother show any of them any sort of affection.

Marni runs right past her, and throws her arms around her grandmother. She smells like apple cider and fallen leaves and candles. She smells like home. There is no trace of the darkness left inside of her.

Dylan stands awkwardly between his mother and grandmother, grinning and torn. Marni has never seen him so thrilled.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

The wail comes harsh and fast. Marni turns to watch Kalabar stumble haphazardly across the court house steps. He's glaring and squinting in the sudden sun.

"You think you could honestly defeat me? _Me?!_"

Kalabar's rage terrifies everyone. Citizens begin to come back into their right minds. The more ferocious push others back, out of harm's way.

Kalabar holds out his hand. The talisman goes flying out of the mouth of the pumpkin and straight into his hand. Marni's stomach drops to the ground. She can feel her heartbeat on her tongue. She had won. It's not supposed to be this way.

Her mother and grandmother step forward. They begin chanting in frantic Latin, but it seemingly has no effect. She has never resented her mother more for not keeping up her powers.

Something bigger than she settles inside of her chest. She is deathly calm. Kalabar hurt Luke. Kalabar hurt her family. _Kalabar will pay_.

"Kalabar." Her voice comes out soft and even. Authoritative. It is enough to make him pause his ranting about Gwen's past chances of becoming his Queen.

"You may not be defeated by only my grandmother and mother. However, with the whole existing Cromwell line against you, you will die." She commands the attention of the entire town. Everyone's eyes are on her. Her mother looks astounded.

Kalabar laughs.

Marni takes her grandmother's hand in hers. Aggie takes Gwen's. Gwen, still shocked, reaches for Sophie.

Dylan shuffles uncertainly to stand beside Marni. She can feel his fury crackle around him. When she entwines her fingers through his, blue sparks shoot up his arm, around his neck, in his eyes.

She begins to hum. Kalabar begins to scream.

It is over in moments.

The citizens of Halloweentown cheer, and it makes her want to cry.

* * *

"_Luke!_"

Luke cannot bear to look up and see her stunning face in the crowd. She's been calling for him for several minutes. He is not worthy of her notice. He never has been. He never will be.

With Kalabar's demise, he has reverted back to his true form.

He keeps his head bent under her grandmother's cloak and wishes fervently to sink into the hay bale he's found refuge in.

"_Luke? LUKE!_" And suddenly Marni is slamming into him, knocking him over sideways. His arms come up around her to break the fall. She squeezes the life out of him, grinning as though she has won a war. In fact, she has prevented one.

"Hi, Marniselae."

She goes rigid on top of him. His heart shatters. It is for the best.

"Why would you call me that? I'm Marni, Luke. Just Marni. Say _Marni._"

"I shouldn't."

"…Why did you do it Luke? Why did you serve that awful creature? Why did you let him change your face into something so ugly? Why did-"

"What?!" He cannot believe what he is hearing. He really can't. "You thought the change was _ugly_?"

"Of course!" Marni shrieks so loudly several heads turn in alarm. A banshee even winces. "Didn't you?"

"I changed for you."

"_What_?" Her voice is dangerous. Angry.

"I. Changed. For. _You_."

"Why? I love your nose! It's the most perfect nose I've ever seen, Luke, don't you know that? And your ears! They're even more beautiful than Astrid's!" Her eyes have welled with frustrated tears. Luke sits up and wraps an arm around her shoulders. He sits for several long seconds in stunned disbelief.

Marni whispers, quiet and ashamed, "Don't you know how lucky you are? I look like a disgusting _human_. All average and plain and-"

"_No_," he growls. "_No._ You're a beautiful _witch_. Besides, you'll get Marks one day. Practice Marks and coven Marks even, if you choose to join one, and spell Marks…a mate Mark."

Marni blinks at him uncertainly. He can tell already that she's forgiven him, but something inside of him will never escape the sting of Kalabar's curses if she doesn't say the words.

"You think I'm beautiful?" she breathes.

"Of course." Luke can't help but snort. "As does the _entire_ young warlock population."

Marni smiles brilliantly. More brilliantly than the Jack-o-lantern. More brilliantly than the sun. "Well, I'd much rather go to the Halloween festival with _you _tonight."

"So you forgive me?" He has to be sure.

"Yes. I forgive you. If someone gave me the chance to stop looking like a human… I don't know. I'd probably do the same thing as you."

He frowns at the self-deprecating comment, but takes her hand when she rises, anyhow.

* * *

Marni stares at her mother, bewildered, when she offers to take her and her siblings back with her to the Mortal world.

Aggie looks on the verge of tears. Luke's hand tightens around hers brutally.

"No, thanks. See you around, okay Mom? I really have to go get ready for the festival now."

Marni breaks away from Luke and practically dives into Benny's cab. By the time Luke has caught up, her eyes are dry. Sophie and Dylan quickly follow.

* * *

Marni dresses in bright orange for the festival. A golden cloak keeps her warm. Her boots are brown. She doesn't want any black reminders of darkness.

Luke can't take his eyes off of her. He dances every dance with her, accompanies her to every booth. It's the most fun she can remember having at a festival.

Across the street, in the alleyway between two buildings, she sees a boy around Luke's age glaring at her. There are tears in his eyes and hatred in his stance.

She blinks, and he has already faded away. She thinks maybe it was a trick of the light.

…Then again, it _is_ Halloween.


	2. Chapter 2

"Cal?"

Marni pushes the door open. The old hinges squeak. The dilapidated shack shudders around her. Why in Merlin's name _this_ is their meeting place, she'll never understand. It's not as though Cal's aunt is ever home. She's been dating the kid for a year now and she's never met a single one of his family members.

She doesn't care. She'd follow Cal to the end of the dimension. She thinks she might even be in love with him.

Leaf looks up at her and grins. "Hey, Marni." The girl has claimed the window seat for herself as usual. Her hair is green this week. Marni likes it much better than the purple of last week. She's never had an affinity for glamour charms herself, but Leaf seems to love them.

"Hi, Leaf. Is anyone else here yet?"

"Yeah. Beau and Spider are outside in a mock duel. Our ever-wise leader isn't here yet though. Figures, right?"

Marni snorts. Yes, it does figure. Cal is always late. Honestly. He needs a time travel spell just to get to their dates on time.

It's worth the wait every time. Cal is _delicious,_ in a way no other warlock is.

"Who says I'm not here yet?"

Marni and Leaf both whirl around at the sound of Cal's voice, but he's not in the doorway of their hideout. It takes them a moment to realize he's on the _door_.

"Oh my- Cal, how in the world?!"

Marni is struck speechless. This is magic unlike any she has ever seen. Not even her grandmother uses magic like this. A thrill starts deep in her spine and works its way out to her fingertips. She feels hot all over. Marni has only ever been able to study Light magic. Cal has shown her Darkness.

The wooden face of her beloved smirks back at her. "I'll teach you guys sometime. Anyway, just thought I'd pop by and tell you all that I'm actually a bit busy today, so I don't have time for our meeting. But next week…well, quite a few things will be different."

Cal smirks again, then fades away. Leaf shrugs and asks Marni to go get some food at the diner with her, but her voice sounds as if it is coming from underwater a million miles away.

Next week is Halloween, and she knows Cal is planning something big. For some reason, it makes her nervous.

* * *

"Somebody's coming," Sophie announces quietly.

Grandma Aggie nods. "Yes, of course. Shall I put some chowder on, dear?"

Sophie nods solemnly. This is the last year of her training. She takes everything as seriously as possible. On Halloween she will have her very own society ball as Marni had done before her.

"It's just Luke," Marni shrugs, glancing out the front window. She tries to ignore the feeling of her stomach dropping to the ground.

"Oh thank Merlin. I'm in some serious need of a conversation not involving dresses," Dylan ribs Sophie playfully.

Warlocks do not get society balls in their honor when their training is complete. Instead, they get an apprenticeship. Dylan is currently studying at the apothecary. He, too, takes everything seriously. Marni is tired of serious.

"Hello everyone," Luke says when he enters the house. He's carrying a giant paper bag. "I brought lunch! And candy. Mostly candy."

"_Yay!_" Sophie lurches out of her seat to carry the bag to the dining room. Aggie turns off the stove with a smile.

"Thank you, Luke! That was very kind of you. Marni, wasn't it kind of Luke to bring your family lunch?" Aggie winks at Marni encouragingly.

Aggie _hates_ Cal. With a passion. Naturally, Aggie knows nothing about Cal's cult, consisting of him, Marni, and three others, or about Cal teaching Marni controversial spells. But her grandmother still can't stand him. She says he gives her a bad feeling.

Marni doesn't care. Cal is fascinating. Cal is _hers._

Her grandma is still under the delusion that _Luke_ of all creatures is her one true match. There had been a time when Marni wholeheartedly agreed. But then Cal had come along, and Luke had made no protest, and why in the world would one of the most eligible Goblins in Halloweentown want to be with a plain old half-human witch like her?

She tries futilely to quiet the roaring of her heartbeat in her ears when she looks at him.

The goblin in question raises a confused eyebrow. Marni frowns at her grandmother before turning to face him. "Yes, it was kind. Thank you Luke. Would you like to go up to my room and see my new crystals?"

Luke nods, grateful to escape Aggie's mischievous gaze, and follows Marni up the stairs. He doesn't let her see him cringe every time she mentions Cal's name. Which is often.

He's grown up quite a bit in the last three years. And Aggie isn't the only one that thinks Marni should be with _him._ This is her sixteenth Halloween after all. Shouldn't it be as special as possible?

She's prattling on and on about some witch named Leaf, a year older than her and a year younger than him, and how she has green hair this week. Then Marni reaches for a black rock the size of both his fists and spins around, showing it to him with pride. It shines in a dull sort of way.

"See, Luke? Onyx! Cal got me this one just a month ago. It's incredible for harnessing new moon energy."

Luke nods, smiles, and doesn't bother to hide the bitterness he feels, but of course it goes right over Marni's head.

He would have bought her rose quartz and helped her harness something much more magical than new moon energy.

* * *

Marni is entirely naked in the cemetery and she sincerely hopes Benny doesn't wander by. She knows this is one of his many haunts in his spare time.

"Welcome, everyone," Cal says, and his gaze sets her on fire. She feels like a Jack o'lantern, burning from the inside out. "Tonight we gather to invoke the powers of the Ancients and of Darkness."

Marni feels goose bumps erupt on her skin. Next to her, Leaf trembles. Spider grasps tightly to Beau's hand.

"Tonight we ask not humbly, not innocently, but purposefully and arrogantly for the power to carry out our most ambitious of desires." Cal's voice is strong and deep. Marni's knees shake. Spider catches the movement and grins with her pointy teeth.

Cal takes out several pieces of onyx, including the one he got for Marni, and places them in a wide circle around them all. Soon, magic is flaring all around them, flinging itself outward and into the thick trees surrounding the graveyard, and upward to blend with the blackness of the night sky. Marni breathes in deep, hard and fast, her vision blurring with Leaf's green hair, Spider's black fingernails, Beau's dark grin, Cal's eyes. A cacophony of chaos rules the night, and she spins in the middle. _Wicked. Powerful_.

Then there is a flashlight, and a shout of, "Hey you kids! Stop right there!" and she's running. Her clothes are back at the shack. She leaves them.

Spider sprints into the trees, Leaf scrambles up the hill. Beau is caught before he can run. His magic is darker than even Cal's. There will be an article in tomorrow's paper about him, for sure. Another warlock stripped of his magic and made Mortal. Marni knows the price of cultism. Marni also knows that she is not untouchable, but she is a Cromwell, and that is close enough. She darts through memorials and hurtles over tombstones. Cal follows. They make it to the road, and skirt along the shadows of buildings. Her magic tingles when Cal casts a Fade spell on himself. He turns the color of shade. She does the same. She is not as advanced at this spell as he is, but it is enough. Naked, she blurs past creatures and witches and pumpkins and Benny's cab. No one looks at her.

"Marni, you have to let me in. Please? Your granny is gone, and the cops will be out looking. I can't keep this spell up forever. My house is on the other side of town," Cal pleads through broken pants as they run.

Marni hesitates. Grandma Aggie had taken one look at Cal over a year ago and forbidden her from ever bringing him into their home. Marni had argued, but ultimately she had enough respect for her grandmother to do as she asked. Now, Marni is faced with a choice; Cal's wrath, and the possible risk of losing him in so many ways, or…

"Of course I'll let you in!" she calls back to him.

She waves her hand when they reach the top of the hill. Police sirens wail in the town beneath them. The sight of the gate that has always protected her makes her panic ebb, but only slightly. They jump apart at her will, and stay open for Cal too. Marni and Cal hurtle across the yard, practically dive through the front door.

The house is not as empty as they had thought.

Luke looks up, startled. He's sprawled across her sofa, reading a book on toadstools.

Marni had fallen to her hands and knees after making it through the door. Cal still stands behind her, wary and sprung tight like a spring, ready to bolt. Or fight. The panic comes back tenfold.

"Luke, you can't tell anyone!" she pleads, scrambling to her feet.

"Marni? Is that you? I can't see you. Why are you using a Fade spell? Where have you been?" Luke's face changes from confused to horrified. He gestures to the radio with a violent tic of his head. It's playing the local news station. Already there are reports of a naked cult practicing Dark magic in the cemetery. "You've been with Cal, haven't you? Cal and those awful friends of his."

She realizes that since he can't see her, he doesn't know Cal is here, either. She breathes a sigh of relief. "It's fine. I'm fine."

Luke rolls his eyes, then jumps to his feet. He towers above her, all sharp features and hard muscle. Even though his eyes rest a few feet away from her, she feels as though his gaze burns her bare skin. "I can't _believe_ you, Marni. After everything your grandma Aggie taught you, after all the things you watched me go through with Kalabar, after all the-"

"Darkness isn't inherently bad, Luke!" Marni screeches and folds her arms across her naked chest. "You've heard everyone in this house invoke the Powers of Darkness before!"

"_Yeah_, when using them as a counter to _Light_, or as an ingredient in a very complex spell! But no one in this house has _ever_ performed entirely Dark magic, Marni, and you know it. It's more of a running family joke than anything-"

"You just don't understand. You're only a Goblin, Luke-" She knows she has gone too far when Luke's eyes widen, then flare, then narrow.

"Only a Goblin," he repeats, dangerously quiet. He stares at her, or where he estimates her to be since she's all but invisible, with deadly anger. She feels sorrow, then pain well up in her chest.

"You're not a warlock," she whispers, trying to make him see. "You don't understand what it's like, to only be allowed to study, understand, and use half your power!"

Luke closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his pointed nose. When he opens them again, his face is entirely blank. "I won't tell Aggie, or anyone else, where you were tonight. But if I ever, _ever_ hear of you doing anything like this again, Marni, our friendship is over. And I mean that. I can't keep watching you turn evil. I can't keep watching you with _him._"

Marni stares, dumbfounded, as he storms across the room and slams the front door behind him. She turns to Cal, expecting his arms to be open and waiting to comfort her. Instead, he is gone. He probably has been for a while. Marni can't help but feel as though she's still spinning, but in a circle with much higher stakes.

When she goes upstairs, she finds a single red rose, perfect in its bloom, lying innocently on her desk. _Cal._ She falls into bed, exhausted, but pleased.

* * *

"Can you believe that Beau boy got his powers stripped?" Aggie clucks her tongue as she chops up several newt eyes.

"No," Marni says quietly. Then, to cover herself, she adds, "I didn't know him personally, but I'd heard he was very talented."

"Very talented at stirring up trouble," Aggie agrees.

"Obviously," Dylan snorts from behind his biography of Morgan le Faye.

"They caught others from the same cult! They had their powers stripped as well. Two witches, I believe," Aggie continues.

Marni's blood freezes in her veins. _Leaf_.

"No, Grandma, one was a half-witch, half-creature," Sophie corrects her.

"Oh, that's right."

_Spider._

"That's odd," Dylan comments. "You don't see those in cults often."

"You don't see cults often, either, Dylan. They're illegal," Aggie reminds him sternly. "I want all of you to stick clear of the friends of those children. They refused to give up the names of the others in the cult. It could be anyone!"

Sophie and Dylan nod solemnly. Marni whirls and reaches for the first cloak on the rack. "I'm going for a walk. I told Astrid I might visit her today."

Aggie stares after her with worried eyes, but doesn't stop her. She escapes into the forest with leaves the color of flames.

* * *

Halloween arrives, and Marni avoids the eyes of her brother, sister, and grandmother as she tugs on her boots. They have a three-and-a-half-inch heel and the pointiest toe of any she's ever worn. The laces go all the way to her knee. They'd been a sixteenth birthday present from Luke.

The doorbell rings and he steps through, ducking his head shyly. Why does he have to be the most beautiful citizen of Halloweentown? It makes Marni hate him a little for not being hers.

She shakes her head at herself. Her nerves are so shot she's starting to fantasize about her best friend. She has Cal. That is all she has ever needed. That is all she will _ever_ need. Cal, who teaches her so much and kisses her so well.

Luke hands a sundae to her sister, Sophie's favorite kind- a blue flame shoots upward and then fizzles out. Sophie grins at Luke and starts shoveling ice cream into her mouth. Luke hands the newest sorcery encyclopedia to Dylan. Aggie hides her adoring smile with her hand, but not very well, when he hands her a delicious pumpkin roll.

Marni remembers the last time she saw him, the awful things she said to him. She remembers Kalabar, and how it had felt to lose Luke to him. She can't go through that again. She doesn't expect him to forgive her any time soon, though.

He surprises her by drawing her into the next room. He pulls a delicate silver chain out of his pocket. A stunning piece of rose quartz dangles from the end of it; Marni's breath gets caught in her throat. _Surely_ Luke doesn't know what a gift of rose quartz means to a witch. She's been trying to get Cal to give her a crystal like that for months. He violently refuses every time, and lately she's stopped pushing.

She ignores the doubts in the back of her mind, whispering that perhaps Cal doesn't love her the way she loves him.

What a cruel, cruel dimension- Luke is literally handing her everything she's ever wanted and he doesn't even realize it.

Luke, meanwhile, watches as Marni's face lights up, and then turns nervous. He knows that what he's doing is risky. He is not an ignorant creature. He knows what giving rose quartz to a witch generally signifies. He only prays that Marni doesn't know that he knows. Not when she's with Cal. Not when she can't be his.

"I noticed you didn't have this one in your collection. You know, the other day. When we were in your room." Luke's words are halting and jittery. He can chat to any Goblin girl with the suaveness of freaking Count Dracula, but he can't manage two words to Marni without breaking out in hives.

Marni's voice is barely a whisper. He's so close to her and smells so good and it's rare that they're alone anymore. This corner of the room gives her a sense of privacy. She tries very hard not to look at his lips. She fails. "Thank you so much Luke. It's perfect."

He nods shortly, and quickly loops the chain around her neck. His hands find their way underneath her hair, and Marni imagines them tightening, tugging, his mouth and body hard against hers-

"It looks great," he smiles and lets her hair swing back down against her back. Then his gaze softens. So tender, so caring. It's impossible not to love him in that moment. "I know today is going to be hard for you guys. I wanted to try to make it better."

Aggie had talked them into visiting the Mortal world today. While they could. Just for a few hours, to check on their mother. No one had heard from her in ages. Aggie was getting worried. Marni couldn't bring herself to think about it for more than a moment at a time. She'd tried to talk to Cal about it, once, but he'd shrugged her off. No girl of his was going to be anything but fierce and independent. She'd never mentioned it again.

But Luke… here he is, taking care of Sophie, Dylan, and giving her rose quartz. It is unfathomable, the amount of support he's showing. Especially after the way she treated him. His rose quartz rests just below the moonstone she'd received at thirteen. Luke had helped pick that one, too.

"I'm glad you're here," Marni whispers. Her body sways under the sudden onslaught of terror. The Mortal world is a barren place. Her mother is a barren soul. She doesn't know if she can deal with the emptiness.

Luke's entire body seems to flinch, then tremble. She gazes at him questioningly. The cold stone against her chest makes her shiver. He notices, and his eyes fill with such longing it takes her breath away. Entirely caught up in him, Marni forgets Cal, forgets her family not twenty feet away from them. When Luke reaches out to brush his fingertips down her cheek, she leans into them, into _him_. All of his rigid muscles relax when his arms finally, finally come up to hold her. So that was what the flinch had meant. He'd been trying to restrain himself.

"I wish-" Luke begins, then cuts himself off. Her face is buried against his chest. He smells like ginger and fall winds. Slowly, his fingers leave her cheek to trail down her neck, across her clavicle, to the silver chain. They trace it down to the quartz nestled next to her heartbeat. His touch lingers there, feeling her pulse go wild for him. How her heart can be so enthusiastic about breaking she'll never understand.

"I'm in so deep with Cal," she breathes, quiet to avoid Aggie's wrath. He stiffens. It is almost as though the rose quartz acts as a channel from him to her. She can feel his anger, his pain, and his insecurity at the mention of her warlock's name. It takes her breath away. "Too deep. I want- I mean, I need- I _should_ get out. While I can. But I think it might be too late. I was planning on talking to him today. But now, with having to visit Mom… I…."

Luke pulls away from her just far enough for his eyes to meet hers. "Marni? What are you saying?"

She knows what he's asking, but she has no stone to match hers to give him, and she is bound to Cal. Possibly infinitely. She is a coward, but a noble one. She won't break her word. But she can't break away from Luke's strong arms, either. "Cal is planning something. For today. I don't know what, but I'm supposed to be involved and… and it makes me nervous."

Luke's eyes harden. She feels his determination, his strength through the stone. "I'll take care of things here while you visit your mother."

Marni hesitates, then nods. She feels terrible about allowing Luke to keep an eye on Cal. She loves Cal. She should be able to trust him. But she just doesn't. "Thank you."

She steps away from him only to find Sophie and Dylan have left for Benny's waiting cab outside the house, and Aggie has been standing in the open doorway on the porch, watching them intently. Marni blushes bright red and starts hastily toward the exit, the crisp air that will cool her heated face, but Luke's fingers wrap tightly around her wrist.

Time stops.

"Marni."

"Yes?"

"See me before you go looking for Cal when you get back to Halloweentown. Please?"

Marni studies him for a long moment. It is a dangerous game they're playing. They both know it. The air crackles between them, thicker than any magic she's ever known. It terrifies her. It thrills her.

She agrees, and then she is gone and the clock continues.

* * *

Marni has been gone barely an hour, and Luke's worry has already skyrocketed to truly unhealthy proportions. He wishes he'd asked Aggie if he could accompany them. He's never been to the Mortal world- he's never had a reason to go- but this time, Marni is there, and he wants to be wherever she is.

He remembers the strength of her spells, the power behind her eyes and her stance, and takes a deep breath. She'll be alright.

He has been trailing Cal since Marni left. So far, the warlock has only been practicing a complicated, unfamiliar spell in his bedroom.

Luke sighs. He turns to leave. It is almost lunchtime, and Astrid had promised to buy him a slice of pumpkin pie today.

When Luke looks up, his eyes meet Cal's through the window. Cal's eyes are feral, dark, _maniacal_.

They look like Kalabar's eyes.

Cal smirks, and then he shouts, _"Apart!"_

Luke is suddenly craving a simple lettuce sandwich for lunch. He hardly notices the lack of color in his world.

* * *

Marni's head reels. She cannot believe how far her mother has fallen.

They found her wasted, lying in a pool of broken glass and alcohol, in the home she'd lived in with their father. A neighborhood Halloween party had been raging next door. That is where she had been, until she'd agreed to a costume party date with a strange man. She is dressed as a witch. Her pointed hat lays askew. Her red hair looks like blood.

Aggie moans in distress, dropping to her knees next to her only daughter. "Gwen?"

Her mother does not answer. Marni wonders if she's still breathing. Sophie's fingers find hers. Dylan clutches her other arm.

"Gwen! Wake up!"

Her mother's eyes flutter open. Marni doesn't know if she is disappointed or relieved. Either way, she takes a deep breath.

"Mother?"

"Yes Gwen, it's me. Oh, darling. What have you done to yourself?"

"Nothing. Go home, Mother." Gwen rolls to her side, stumbles uncertainly to her feet. She wobbles on her cheap black boots.

"No, Gwen. This has gone on long enough. You're coming _home_, to Halloweentown. You don't have to live with us, but you're going to live in _your own_ world, where I can be there for you!"

Marni is expecting shrieks, curses, hexes, something. An argument. Instead, her mother blinks for several long moments, almost in slow motion.

Then she says, "Alright. I'll come home. But not until after my date. I want this last Mortal night. One last night."

Aggie nods uncertainly, not sure what to make of this sudden compliance. "Yes, of course, dear. Sophie, Dylan, stay here with your mother, please. Start sorting her things. Marni and I are going to run home to get some bottomless boxes."

Sophie's bottom lip trembles, but she nods bravely. Dylan sneers at Gwen, but stands resolute.

"Hurry back," Sophie whispers.

Marni and Aggie step outside and summon the Portal. Her heart throbs against her quartz. She can't wait to be back in Luke's arms. She determinedly doesn't think of Cal.

* * *

"Where's the Jack o' lantern?" Marni's eyes zero in on the lack of the pumpkin immediately. Her eyes have always, always searched it out. It reminds her that she is real. That she is important. That she is _home_, in Halloweentown, where she belongs. But all that remains is a giant cinder block.

Then she realizes that she is the only one dressed in orange, purple, and gold. The rest of the world is gray. She feels as though she's stepped into an old horror film. Next to her, her grandmother gasps.

"As goes the Jack o' lantern, so goes Halloweentown."

"Grandma… what's happening?"

There is a sinking feeling in the pit of Marni's stomach. Cal had something to do with this. She just knows it. Still, she hopes against hope.

Aggie reaches out, snatches a young girl gently by the arm. Her shoulders are hunched over; she sloshes through dead, gray leaves in a giant drab trench coat. "Excuse me, could you tell me what's happened here- _oh!_"

The girl is Astrid. Her normally white-blonde hair is stringy and her skin is sallow. Fear convulses in Marni's chest. _Not Astrid_. "Astrid?! Is that you?!"

"I'm Astrid." _Monotone._

"But- Astrid-" Marni falters. She watches as the last colorful thing about Astrid- indeed, the thing that has always defined her to Marni- turns gray. Her sparkly orange heels fade away into flat Mary Janes. "Your shoes!"

"They're very comfortable. Sensible shoes are important. I think I'll buy some more."

Astrid shuffles away, lost in the dreary, foggy void. The next second, someone shoves forcefully against Marni. She stumbles, falls to her side on the hard cobblestone. She picks herself up, brushes herself off, and lets Aggie shriek in disdain at the boy that bumped into them.

"Excuse you! We were talking!"

The boy has curly hair, round ears, a flat nose. His jacket still has stripes of orange, but they are faded and worn. "Whatever."

"Oh! I hate that word!" Aggie grumbles. She is about to turn away, when Marni asks her to wait.

_That nose!_

"Wait up! Hey! Do I know you?"

"Duh."

Marni's heart slams into her ribcage, stops, then starts again. "No. No, it can't be. _Luke!_"

"Yeah." The boy shrugs. He is utterly average. Marni watches as his jacket fades entirely to gray.

"But… But you're a _human_ now! You look just like you did when _Kalabar_-"

Even as a human, Luke flinches at the name. It is only slightly, but it lets Marni know he is still in there, somewhere. It makes her chest ache. Her fingers find his rose quartz. He doesn't even glance down.

She wills herself not to cry, but panic is quickly forming inside of her. She has been to the Mortal world for only an hour, and her whole world has been ripped away.

"Why are you turning gray Luke? Why?"

"Everybody's doing it." Another damned shrug.

"That's not what I mean! I need you, Luke! I _need _you!"

He only stares at her with uncertain gray eyes. So much gray. She feels as though she might suffocate if she doesn't see red soon. Red leaves, red shirt sleeves, Luke's red hair.

"It's the spell, dear," Aggie says, appearing at her side, trying to comfort her.

Marni snorts humorlessly. "Seriously? You think someone put a spell on all of Halloweentown?"

"Yes," Aggie nods. "I do. I remember a spell… I copied it into my spell book once… oh, but I haven't looked at it in years!"

Hope flares in Marni's chest. Spells. She knows how to track those down! "Great! Maybe we can find a way to undo it."

Aggie nods, and reaches into her pocket for a purple skull. Together, she and Dylan had created an inter-world communication device. Marni is pretty sure that was one of her main intentions, going to the Mortal world, to find out if it worked. "Dylan? Are you there?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately. What's taking you guys so long?"

"Listen, Dylan, I'm going to be a while longer than anticipated. Keep an eye on your mother for us, will you?"

"What?! But-"

Marni zones out of the conversation. Luke has started to wander off. Her chest constricts painfully. She runs after him, grabs him by the sleeve. "Gotcha!"

"Whatever."

She drags him back to where her grandmother is standing. She rips the skull out of her hands, presses her lips to the ear. "Listen, Dylan, just do it! Or else."

"Or else what?"

"Or else I'll post your diary pages all over the town bulletin board!"

"You don't know where it is!"

"Want to bet?"

Dylan is quiet for a moment, then she hears a sigh. "Fine. I'll do it."

* * *

They are about to fold themselves into Benny's waiting cab when the cinder block begins to warp.

Marni knows what she will see before she sees it. There was a time in another life when she watched a wooden door warp just like that.

Her grandmother is still rambling. "We have to get back to our house! This Gray Spell is a pain in the-"

"Very good, Aggie. You're keeping up very nicely."

Marni stares at the concrete head. "Cal? _You _put the Gray Spell on Halloweentown?" So this had been his big surprise. This was his plan all along.

"Yep. Got the spell right out of Aggie's book, actually. Naughty girl."

Marni's stomach drops at the same time her face heats up. She had brought Cal into her home, and now she is paying the price.

The look on Aggie's face nearly kills her. "Marni? What's he talking about?"

"He may have been inside a little while ago. Inside our house, I mean. Just for a moment! I… I'm so sorry, Grandma."

Aggie purses her lips and looks away.

Marni turns back to Cal, glaring at him as hatefully as she can manage. She feels used, bare, and vulnerable. She thinks of her love, her nakedness at sky-clad cult ceremonies. She has been taken advantage of, and this thought does not sit well with her magic. "So then the whole thing- our entire _relationship_ was a lie? It was all just to get the spell book?"

"No." Cal's voice is ugly. It grates against her ears. His stone teeth gleam white in this gray world. "No. I could have gotten in and stolen the book any time. I wanted you to allow me in because you _felt_ something between us. And you did."

Marni huffs out an infuriated breath that wants desperately to turn into a sob. "You _tricked_ me!" Living in a world where everything is either a trick or a treat has never been so heartbreaking. Marni has been living firmly in the treat side of life for so long now. She never, ever, expected this.

Cal laughs a little. "You'll get over it."

Questions and confusion burn through Marni. She stutters in anger as she speaks. "Whatever. I want to know-"

And then she realizes it. The rose on her desk. Full, red, perfect. The color of blood. "_Kalabar."_

Aggie frowns next to her. She remembers all too clearly how traumatized Marni truly was by that event. "What did you say, dear?"

Marni's head is spinning. It's beginning to ache. "The rose. I should have _known_ when he left me the rose. _Cal._ You're _Kalabar's_ son!"

"I suppose I inherited my father's attraction to Cromwell witches," Cal smirks.

"I didn't know Kalabar had a child," Aggie manages. She is staring in awe at this giant block of concrete. Marni feels as though she might faint.

"He didn't want people to know! He was such a wise man. He was going to give the creatures of Halloweentown back their birthright! He was going to return us all to the Mortal world, as rightful rulers of the human race. He was the only thing standing in the way of Cromwell domination. But you people turned everyone against him, and then you _destroyed_ him!"

"Cromwells dominate no one!" Aggie snarls.

Cal ignores her and turns his eyes to Marni. "Just say the word, Marni. I'll take you to the Mortal world with me. You can rule with me as my queen! I can show you things Aggie couldn't dream of. Come with me to a party in the Mortal world tonight. It will be the first of many celebrations."

Marni shoots her grandmother a look full of fury and regret. Once, that offer would have enticed her. Now it just makes her feel sick. "I'm not interested in _your_ brand of magic!"

Cal rolls his eyes. "You just think about it for a while, okay? Catch you later."

Then he is gone.

* * *

There are two spell books, and one gray house, and Marni is starting to think that she might be losing her mind.

What are Cal's plans for the Mortal world? How hadn't she seen this coming? She thought she loved him, but perhaps she loved the idea of him. Now she doesn't even have that, and a gray Luke is snoozing on the gray couch.

Marni can't think about going upstairs to her room and seeing all of her things turned colorless. Grandma Aggie has already slumped down at their new chrome table.

"Grandma, we can't just give up! Okay, there's got to be something that can get us out of this trap; a spell, or-"

There is a pull deep inside of her, and the sound of magic. Marni always knows when her magic is working, and this time it is. Luke knows it too. His hands go up to his ears. One moment he is lifeless, and the next he is full of color again. Red hair, pointy ears, yellow jacket. Marni somehow brings him back to her.

"_Luke!"_

Marni runs to him and does not think twice about throwing her arms around him. "Luke, you're a Goblin again!"

"Yeah," he sighs into her hair. She hopes the transition wasn't painful.

Marni is reluctant to break away from him, but they have a dimension to save and her ex-boyfriend to thwart. "Grandma, what changed him back? Did you say something?"

Aggie shakes her head. "No, I don't think so. But remember that some spells have time limits, dear."

Luke frowns ruefully. "I was probably the first one he tried the spell on; it was right after you all left for the Mortal world."

"Well, maybe the spell on the house will wear off, and then we can find the spellbook!"

"But if it takes too long, midnight will pass in the Mortal world."

Marni's blood turns to ice at the thought of her brother and sister being stuck in that awful dimension with their awful mother. For a _year_. Sophie doesn't even remember that world, and Dylan's memories have faded. They're both beyond their thirteenth years, and will never be human. They would never survive.

"Then what do we do? We can't find it!"

Aggie's eyes light up. "Exactly! Perhaps it's lost!"

Marni looks at Luke and doesn't feel any better when he shrugs.

* * *

Marni watches her gray home roll by the windows at an inchworm's pace. Benny is driving as fast as his new skin and careful nature will allow, but it is not fast enough. Every moment that passes feels like a new weight on her shoulders. She can't stop thinking about Dylan and Sophie, about her mother and Grandma Aggie's offer for Gwen to come live with them.

Marni starts to frown when the streets stop being familiar. She has never been past the edge of town. She's never had a reason to be. All of her friends and family have always been in town; their Cromwell family home resides on the hill above town with other old families' estates. She has never thought to go in the opposite direction, or beyond the streets she is leaving now. She wishes she could see it in color, to remember and explore later.

Benny takes them past graveyards and corn mazes, and stops at the bottom of another hill, on the opposite side of town. It is rockier here, almost mountainous. They will have to climb.

"Why have I never been out here?" Marni whispers to Luke in between panting.

"Not a lot of witches and warlocks come out this way; they tend to prefer society and civilization. Not all creatures do, though. Some are quite rural and private."

Eventually they come upon a small cottage. They have had to climb so far Grandma Aggie is wheezing. Marni would be worried, but Grandma Aggie is not Mortal. She'll be fine.

"Looks like Gort's cleaned up since the Gray Spell," Luke snickers.

When they knock, they are invited in to fold socks.

* * *

"_Toenail Cutting_?"

"_Dusting: For Fun and Profit?!_"

"_One Hundred Recipes for Tapioca._ You know, I don't think whoever lost these is missing them much."

"Gort, these can't be all the books you've got."

"Well. I sold the rest," Gort shrugs, his nasally voice just as flat as the rest of their world, "in the yard sale."

Marni feels the panic rising up into her throat. Things suddenly seem dimmer in the small cottage. The walls feel like they're closing in. Obstacle after obstacle, and they're still no closer to rescuing Dylan and Sophie.

"_Yard sale?_" Marni's voice is high with tension. Aggie places a comforting hand on her shoulder, but Marni barely feels it. Her panic is echoed in Luke's eyes.

"Yes. This place was very messy. I only kept the useful books. I'll sell these socks too-"

"Gort!" Aggie intervenes, sensing Marni's growing despair. "There was a particular book; an extra copy of my spell book. Do you remember who you sold it too?"

Marni holds her breath. Luke puts his hand on the small of her back in a comforting gesture. She's not sure which came first.

"Do you think these socks match?"

Marni closes her eyes for a prolonged moment and tries not to see her mother's hair, red like blood on the floor in the Mortal World.

Aggie pulls Marni aside. As always, Luke follows. "Marni, that book could be anywhere."

Marni's mind is moving too quickly. In her panic, everything looks like a gray blur. Her grandmother and Luke are the only colorful points, the only things keeping her from going insane. "Okay then. I say we head back to the Mortal World, if-"

"Marni! The Gray Spell! It's coming back."

Marni turns in time to see her grandmother's fingers turning gray. Her stomach rolls. She might actually be sick, right here in Gort's disturbingly clean house.

"This spell will probably come after you too dear," Aggie warns her.

Marni looks at her grandmother's blue eyes. Those blue eyes have watched over her all her life. Soon they will be gray, and there is nothing she can do.

"We've got to get out of here," Luke gasps. He takes the stairs three at a time, tugs at the handle of the door.

Marni's heart beats faster and faster. The door won't open. "There are no more windows!" It appears it hadn't been a trick of her mind when the cottage got dimmer earlier.

"Grandma! We've got to do something."

Marni can tell that her grandmother tries. "_Oh_. I can't. The Gray Spell must be draining my powers."

Her eyes go gray, and Marni's vision blurs with unshed tears.

And then there's _his_ voice. "Right again, Agatha."

That chuckle. The one that had sent shivers up her spine now sounds like nails on a chalkboard. _Cal._

Marni whirls around, a snarl already on her face. "You've been spying on us this whole time."

She is not entirely prepared to see him like that, a bodiless head in the fire. The flames create his lips, the ones she'd kissed so many times, his cheekbones, the eyes that drove her wild and intimidated her all at once. _His hair_; had she really stroked his hair only a few days ago?

"I didn't need to. I already knew about _Aggie's_ second spellbook. That's how I knew you'd end up at Gort's." Marni doesn't miss his slight to her grandmother, using her familiar nickname like that. How dare him, after everything else-

Her grandmother seems to echo her thoughts. "How _could you_? I lost that book before you were born!"

Cal ignores her entirely, flame-filled eyes only on Marni. "Have you thought anymore about going to the party? I heard it's going to be a real scream. I think even your mother might make an appearance. After all, it's right next door."

"Leave my mother out of this."

"My science experiment- you know, that thing in the cauldron I used to never let you near when you came over- I think he even got her some sort of hellacious mask to wear-"

Marni rolls her eyes. She's painfully aware of Luke in the background, grinding his teeth in annoyance. "You know, this is not the way to talk me into a date."

Cal's eyes burn into hers. "This is more than a date. This is our future together."

Marni stares back at him. She is looking at all of the mistakes she has made, has been making, for so long. How could she have ever wanted this pitiful excuse for a monster? "I'm in control of _my own_ future. And it _doesn't_ include _you_!"

There is a roaring sizzle as Cal's flames react to his anger, and then he is gone.

Well. At least now he's _officially_ her ex.

"Creature spell." The words come from her grandmother, whom at some point had lost interest in her lover's quarrel and gone to fold socks with Gort.

The image takes some time for her brain to compute. "What?"

"The Creature spell. It was used during the Dark Ages. It was used on Halloween night, when Mortals would dress as creatures to mock them. It turned them into the very creatures they were mocking. I think that's why Cal put your mother in a mask. He's going to turn her into a creature."

And then Aggie goes back to folding her socks.

* * *

There's a man banging on the door of the house.

Dylan barely remembers this place. He knows that there are two bedrooms upstairs. He remembers how long the stairs used to seem after he had a nightmare and had to climb down them to get to his parents' room on the first floor. That's pretty much the only solid memory he has of this realm; being afraid and crawling along in the dark.

Now there are people on the street dressed up like his friends and he's not sure if he should find the familiarity of their features comforting or not. Is this what the rest of Halloweentown sees when they look at the half-human, half-witches of his family? Do they feel this bizarre mix of shame and bemusement and contempt?

This man, for instance, shouting for his mother and demanding entrance. He's dressed like a giant green frog and holding the most hideous mask Dylan's ever seen.

Sophie takes one look at him through the blinds on the windows and whispers, "I think he's a Gollum."

* * *

"There has to be a way to get out of here!"

Even in her gray state, Aggie looks scandalized. "_Rules are rules!_"

Marni can't bear to look at Luke and see his furrowed red eyebrows, the look that will say, _we've been trying to tell you_. What is it about her magic that makes her want to rebel against the confines of ancient systems? Why can't she just be a normal, mediocre witch? There's always been something in the air of her dimension that makes her feel as though she belongs here, and as though the magic belongs to _her._

"Alright, well rules have _exceptions!_ Loopholes. Like… like a backdoor." Marni stares at her grandmother for a moment, and then turns away. How can she look into her grandmother's gray eyes while contemplating a way to break _Merlin's Code_?!

"You mean a way to weasel out of the spell without actually breaking it," Luke clarifies calmly. His hands land on her shoulders, holding her still. She does have an awful habit of pacing when stressed.

"Right. Exactly. So, this spell is meant to keep us from going outside, right? Well what if we tried to go somewhere other than outside?"

Luke raises an eyebrow. "Marni, there's only _outside and inside_. Right now, we're _inside._ Where do you propose we go?"

Marni thinks of Cal, of his time loops and their dates and how it always bothered her that he was technically late, a spell seeming to make him early. There is something vicious inside of her that roars with glee, and she's sure it shows in the gleam of her teeth when she smiles.

"We're going some_when_ else."

* * *

"This is only five minutes ago."

"Must not have said it right."

* * *

There is a roar and a cave man that has been dead for millennia and then there is a flash. Marni's head spins. Her stomach quivers. When is she? She thinks she's still holding firmly to Luke's hand, but is she?

Her feet land against something solid, and she breathes deeply for a moment to gain her bearings. Had she closed her eyes? She must have, because now Marni opens them and spins in a stumbling circle. She's back at Gort's, only there's no one else here and everything but the stained glass windows- suddenly reappeared- is still gray.

"Nice job escaping my spell, baby."

Marni whirls, and there's Cal. Tall, dark, clad in that leather jacket she'd stolen at least three times. Her heart lurches and tugs painfully, but she glares. She won't give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. "I'm not your baby. Stop interfering in my spells, Cal. It's against the Code of Merlin."

Cal smirks. The feeling is electric and goes right through her. She hates it. "No one cares about the Code of Merlin anymore, Marni. You broke it yourself by joining a cult! Besides, what do you want to hang around these moldy old creatures for, anyhow?"

Marni's hand twitches, but she won't allow it to go to her rose quartz necklace, still hanging from her neck. Had Luke only given it to her this morning? It feels like centuries ago. Or perhaps, centuries from now. "These creatures are my friends. This is our _home_, Cal. What are you doing?!"

"Your mom's about to become a real moldy old creature."

Marni isn't sure why she says it, but something fierce and old and brand new wells up inside of her at the mention of her mother. Poor powerless Gwen, caught up in the Mortal World. "_Leave my mother alone_."

Cal wiggles his fingers, and then he's gone.

Marni glares at the empty space he occupied. "_Pahb arny wenethou, anaht hehnu, ahkwen ahnawais, nea shath nahda."_

Her spell spins her through time once more. She keeps her head about her this time; there can't be any more room for Cal to interfere. With the next flash, she's in another Gort's house, in another time.

The first thing she notices is the piles and piles of junk all around her. Somewhere a wind chime blows in the wind created by her magic. Her heeled boots crunch something; her cloak brushes plastic toys, metal tools, some sort of fabric.

There is no flash of red hair. Marni fights the panic as best as she can. "_Luke?_ Luke? _Luke, where are_-"

"You know, I think I liked this place better when it was gray," Luke says, stepping out from behind a pile of lost things.

Marni doesn't even have the time to admire him. "Okay, seriously, where's Gort? It's nearly eleven in the Mortal World, which means-"

She smells him, and the smell cuts her off immediately. Marni tries not to gag. Luke winces and turns toward the balcony. Gort has appeared, and appeared with a vengeance. Apparently his house is not the only thing he rarely cleans.

"_What are you doing in my house?!"_

The only thing Marni can think of is to say, "It's okay! Aggie sent us!"

Her grandmother is close to like six hundred, right? Older? Surely she's made friends with Gort by now. Marni isn't encouraged, however, by the look of distaste on the creature's face.

"Well that doesn't make you welcome here. I _hate_ Aggie!"

At least the use of her informal name means he knows her well.

"Don't take it personally, he hates everyone," Luke whispers. Marni surreptitiously sneaks her hand into his. They both pretend not to notice her rose quartz emitting a faint glow as her magic responds to the support he offers.

"Well, she has the greatest respect for you," Marni goes on, leaning forward. "She said you're the foulest, messiest, meanest creature in Halloweentown!"

Luke's grip on her hand tightens considerably. She doesn't have to look at him to know the expression of abject mortification on his face. Goblins are typically very polite. "_Marni! Ixnay!"_

She barely refrains from laughing.

"Aggie's just trying to butter me up," Gort grumbles, peering at her from underneath a mound of greasy hair.

"No, she meant it," Marni shrugs, as though she couldn't care less about her grandmother, her siblings, the fate of Halloweentown…

"Well regardless, I am now serving _nobody! I want you out of my cottage!_"

"But-"

"Little girl, you stink like a Cromwell. Now _get out of my house_!"

Luke takes Marni by the waist, attempts to both guide her toward the stairs and the exit and duck away from Gort's wildly swinging arms at the same time. Desperate, Marni turns back. "Okay, okay. It's just… it was nice seeing your place while it was still messy."

Gort blinks back at her. "What do you mean, still messy?"

Marni smiles and knows she has him. "Well you see, there's this thing called the Gray Spell, and in a few years, Kalabar's son is going to make your whole house _neat._"

Marni obligingly covers Luke's large beautiful ears when Gort screams in horror.

* * *

"What does it look like?"

"It's a _big leather book-_" Marni explains for the ninth time. She tosses the nastiest cushion she's ever seen somewhere across the room. Luke seems to be making more headway, holding a large stack of thick books himself. None of them belong to Aggie, though.

Marni screams when she glances down. A cockroach the size of a dog leaps out at her. Luke lurches to catch her as she scrambles away, but he's too far. Gort, meanwhile, picks the insect up into his arms and coos to it like a baby.

"I don't think the spellbook is here," Marni groans.

"Maybe we came too far back in time," Luke shrugs.

"But Grandma said she lost it decades ago. We couldn't have come back _that_ far." But Marni remembers the cave man and bites her lip, suddenly unsure.

"Wait. Did this leather book have fancy writing on the front?" Gort suddenly asks.

"_Biblio Magica,_ yeah!" Marni nods. Hope swells within her.

"I remember it!"

"That's _so good!_"

"Kalabar bought it from me about fifty years ago."

The hope inside Marni dies. "That's _so bad._"

"Kalabar must have been working on his multi-dimension domination thing for at least a century," Luke groans. Marni can hear the self-loathing under his tone. To have become a pawn so unwittingly in something so huge…

The self-loathing hits Marni, too. "Cal must have had the second spell book all along. The only reason he needed into Grandma's house-"

"Was to take her copy and prevent you from undoing his work," Luke nods.

A wave of emotion unfurls within Marni so strong her magic nearly reacts. She and Luke are on the exact same wave-length. How could she not have seen before how perfect they are? How could she not have seen how manipulative and awful Cal was? Marni had been an idiot and now her siblings will pay the price.

Marni finds a forgotten shoe on the floor and throws it as hard as she can.

* * *

Dylan and Sophie hold hands as they fly clumsily above the tiny moving metal car. Their mother had gone with the Gollum-man, and having been tasked by their grandmother to stay with her, Sophie had felt it necessary to follow.

"Mom's the one driving," Sophie says quietly. Her brother clutches her waist. Broom-flying had been the hardest for her to master. This is not how she envisioned spending Halloween this year.

"I can't believe she can operate a machine like that."

"She was way older than Marni, even, when she left Halloweentown," Sophie agrees. The cool October wind whips around them. She's glad her magic still works in this world. She's glad she can keep herself and her brother warm.

"I can't figure out why she would," Dylan grumbles and shifts his weight. He hates flying.

"Do you ever wonder who we would have been, if we had stayed here?" Sophie asks. It is a question that haunts her.

"No," Dylan says gruffly. Sophie knows it is the first time he has ever lied to her.

* * *

"I don't know what to do. Even if we make it back to our own time, I still don't know how to reverse the Gray Spell." Marni clutches the large teddy bear she found a little tighter.

Luke sighs and sits down next to her. His perch is a small table shaped like an elephant. Honestly, the things people lose! "Alright, well, you've done it once."

"Huh?"

"With me. You reversed the Gray Spell on me," Luke nods firmly.

Marni gives him a half smile. "No, it wore off."

"It didn't wear off of Benny or Gort," Luke disagrees. "Just think it through with me, alright?"

Marni stares at him. She trusts him entirely, more than she ever trusted Cal. _Stupid, stupid, stupid_ is the mantra in her head. "Alright, so I was looking for the book with Grandma while you were picking your nose."

Luke frowns and the furrow of his brow is so familiar she could cry. "Right, well. You said something to your grandma, while you were searching. Undoing a spell requires saying it backwards, right? So maybe it was in there backwards somehow."

Marni's heart swells as Luke digs around in the junk all around them to find a pen and paper. "I think I said something like _we need something to get us out of this trap._"

Luke nods. "Keep going."

"_We need something to get us out of this trap, a spell, a hex_-"

Luke cuts her off as he copies down her words. "You didn't say _a hex_, I know that."

How had he still been as aware of her as he changed from the mockery of a mortal back to his divine Goblin self? Marni stares at him in awe.

"Alright, well, what's backwards? Trap? No. Spell? No. Ugh!"

"Here! _Trapa_. It's _Apart_ backwards."

Marni stares at him. "So?"

"So does every spell have to be long?"

"No, some spells are short."

"So try it! Say it like a spell."

Now it's Marni's turn to frown. It would be so easy to fall back into their sarcastic bickering. The back-and-forth exchanges between them had become more and more frustrated and bitter in the last few years. How much has she ruined?

She owes it to him to at least try. She whirls on Gort. "Fine. _Apart!_"

The magic flows from her hands. In an instant, Gort is gray.

When Luke wraps his arms around her, it is the sweetest victory she has ever had.

* * *

The victory only minutes ago is quickly quelled when Marni realizes she has forgotten the time travel spell.

"Forgotten it? How could you have forgotten it?"

"It's Cal's. He's been on my mind a lot today… it wouldn't have been difficult for him to do a Mind Blocking charm," Marni mutters. She sinks to her knees and buries her head in her hands.

Luke is staring at her in abject horror. "What? Marni, those are illegal! That's… that's…"

"That's something the leader of a cult would have no problem doing," Marni snarls. Anger wells up inside of her. She feels like a trapped animal.

"I'll kill him. He could have _permanently damaged your mind_, Marni! I'll kill him." She looks up to see Luke beginning to pace.

"You'll kill him before he's born?!"

It takes ten minutes of arguing and bickering, as well as several conjured garden gnomes, before Gort sighs. He opens a wardrobe Marni hadn't noticed before.

"Why don't you just use the Time Line?"

"How did you get that?!"

"I don't know, some wizard must have lost it. Go on, get going!" Gort snarls, and stomps back up the stairs and out of his cottage completely.

Marni pulls out her new broom, one of the state of the art pocket models. Luke stares at it warily as she snaps it to full size.

"Marni, I'm a Goblin. Goblins don't fly."

"Would you rather stay here?" Marni asks as she swings her leg over. She glances back at him, patting the seat, only to see the look of hesitation on his face.

She reaches for him with her fingers, keeping one hand on the bobbing broom to keep it steady. He leans his cheek into her palm.

"We have to go, Luke," she whispers.

He nods and climbs on behind her.

* * *

"I'm really alright. Honestly, kids, I know tonight looks bad, but Halloween is a difficult time for me. This sort of thing isn't a regular occurrence. Why don't you get back to the bus stop? It's almost midnight." Gwen shoos her hand in their general direction.

Dylan nods. "You heard her Soph, let's go."

"We can't. We don't know where Marni and Grandma are, and the portal is closed." Sophie reminds him.

Dylan swears. "Well what are we supposed to do?"

At that same moment in the next dimension, Marni and Luke burst out of the wormhole into a pile of laundry.

Marni scrambles to her feet and helps her grandmother rise. The woman stares at her as though she does not know her. A knot forms in Marni's throat. She glances back at Luke.

He nods at her, answering her unspoken question. "You can do this, Marni."

She notices the way he hesitates before he says her name. What pet name would he give to her, if it were up to him? She desperately wants to find out.

The necklace glinting against her chest gives her strength. Marni nods and turns back to her grandmother. "_Trapa!_"

There's a burst of magic, and suddenly her grandmother is whole in front of her, colorful and full of life. Aggie's eyes fill with tears.

"I knew you could do it!"

"Grandma, I'm so happy you're okay, but we have to draw up the portal. It's almost midnight in the mortal world. Cal is going to use the Creature Spell. We can't let Dylan and Sophie get stuck there."

Marni isn't sure how she knows the rest of Cal's plan, but she feels it in her gut. Why else would he taunt her about creatures? Why else would he bring up her mother when he never allowed Marni to talk about her?

Aggie's eyes harden, and she nods. In the next instant, thick magic is hanging in the air. They press their hands together, murmuring the words that will connect them to their family again.

It doesn't work.

The portal arrives and shuts almost in the same instant. The heavy steel doors slide closed. There is pandemonium on the other side. Marni can hear Sophie screaming somewhere in the strange large room. The sound pierces her more painfully than anything ever has.

When her fingers can't pry the portal open, Marni wails.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Luke chants, his arms winding their way about her waist. She collapses against him, utterly confused as to how her body can hold so much sorrow.

"We'll wait," Aggie is saying through the haze of grief clouding Marni's mind. "We'll bide our time and get stronger. Next Halloween, we'll rescue Gwen and Dylan and Sophie from Cal's clutches."

Marni's magic thrums in time to her breaking heart. All of her life, she has been expected to at once balance and reject the worlds she belongs to. What is the point? All this time, she had thought that Cal would teach her how to unleash her own magic. Instead, he wanted to harness it for himself.

_Set yourself free. Set everyone free._

Marni lunges for the purple skull hanging from Aggie's waist. "Sophie? Soph, are you there?"

Sophie's voice comes amid a clatter of screams, yells, and monstrous shrieks. "I'm here."

"Listen to me," Marni says. Her voice is calm even though her hands shake. She has to be strong for Sophie. Poor little Sophie, whom Gwen brought to Halloweentown at only a few months old. "We're going to open the portal."

Aggie gasps. Marni ignores her. Sophie disagrees. "We can't, it's after midnight!"

"I don't care," Marni snaps. Luke has gone very still behind her. She prays to Hecate he doesn't leave her over this, but it's a calculated risk. "The portal hasn't always been there. It was created by magic. No one's magic is stronger than ours. Do you believe that?"

Sophie's voice is once again very small. "I guess so."

"No! You have to believe it." Marni can feel her own magic responding to her urgent call; it soars away from her skin, radiating outward, searching for its own kind in the ether between worlds.

"I guess I have to get in on this too," Dylan groans over the skull-phone.

"There's no spell for this," Sophie cries.

"We'll make our own," Marni determines.

There's silence that she feels is agreement enough to begin.

Marni takes a deep breath and turns to face Luke. His head hangs down; he stares at the floor. Marni feels her heart drop, but still she holds her hand out to him insistently. Her magic, her very essence, draws him to her. This spell will require both witch and creature. There is a beginning to this magic. Marni understands she has started something monumental; if Luke takes her hand, he'll be binding himself to her somehow.

"I'm no warlock, Marni," he mumbles ashamedly. Tiredly. Marni's eyes widen. Is this the piece of the puzzle she's been missing? Does Luke think that the part of him she loves the most- his utter Goblinness- makes him _undesirable_?

"Luke, I need someone who believes anything is possible. And you're the one that taught me that," Marni whispers.

He lifts his head. There is hesitant joy in his eyes. "If you're there, I believe it."

Marni smiles. Aggie brushes away more tears. "I've always believed in you, Marni."

The three of them link hands. Marni can almost hear Sophie's voice in her head. "_We call on the dreams of creature and mortal, to heal the wound the worlds divide. From now on, we each can create a portal, and each of us our own path decide."_

Sophie has always been better at creating and remembering spells, so Marni's magic allows hers to take the lead. Slowly, she can feel Dylan join, and then her grandmother. Luke's own goblin magic intermingles with Cromwell magic, strengthening and altering it to serve a common goal.

Slowly but surely, the portal slides open. Light floods Gort's gray cottage.

"_Yes_!" Marni hisses. For the first time, she sprints eagerly into the Mortal realm.

Sophie and Dylan rush into Aggie's arms. Marni reaches out and brushes her hand against them, just to make certain they're real. Her heels clack against the hard floor; they're in a gymnasium of some kind, and people of all ages have been transformed into a mockery of various creatures. It's impossible to tell which is her mother, but Marni is sure it's one of the particularly heinous ones.

"I don't care how strong you think you are! You will never defeat me!" Cal screams.

Marni stares at him as he strides toward her, stopping just short of spraying spit in her face. She snarls up at him. This twisted beast is somehow the same boy that bought her ice cream a few months ago.

"Your only power was the power to keep us all _apart_, Cal. And now, you don't have that power anymore." Marni makes sure to twist her words as ferociously as possible. She wants him to know that she figured out every detail of his plot, including the spell that almost destroyed Halloweentown.

There's a flicker of panic in his eyes. That's all she needs. Her frantic beating heart tells her otherwise; so do the eyes of all these mortals-turned-creatures. Marni knows what is coming. Her magic is whispering the answers to her. She'll need steady hands.

"Dad was right," Cal snarls at her. "You're the enemy and you always will be."

"We don't have to hate each other, Cal," Marni cries. She knows in her gut this is true. She has watched as Astrid grew older before her, dating creatures and warlocks only to break up, cry for a while, and then smile and nod at one another on the street. This is the way of things; how things should be. _Of course_ Marni's ex has to be the one bent on multi-realm domination. "You always told me that you make your own decisions. Don't let your father's hate decide for you now. Just give me back Agatha's spell books."

Cal's eyes glint manically. "You want them? Come get them." Tendrils of solidified evil, gnarled like the roots of ancient trees, whirl through the air and down around the books. Dark magic like lightning flickers shockingly around the books Cal presents to her.

Marni is terrified. Cal is stronger even than Kalabar used to be. Her whole body remembers the electric shocks from before, her skin tinged blue. Her instinct is to step back, run through the portal to Halloweentown and away. Let Cal have the Mortal World.

_You cannot run. You are good_, whispers her magic. She thinks she remembers her father's smile. 

Marni stands still. "I'm not afraid of you. I feel sorry for you. I would like to help you. But I'm _not_ afraid of you."

Her magic, in fact the magic of the entire Cromwell line, strong and golden, forms a protective orb around her. She hears Luke and Dylan gasp, hears Sophie cheer. Her grandmother stands quietly in awe, allowing her to fight her own battles.

Marni takes a step forward. The tendrils of evil crack like whips.

"Marni, be careful," Aggie warns as the crowd gasps.

Marni nods. She focuses; thoughts imbued with magic flood her mind. There's Dylan studying at the table as Aggie makes chowder for Sophie; there's Marni and Astrid dancing through the leaves as they fell in the street; there's Luke, just this morning, giving Marni a piece of rose quartz and the knowledge that he had to have known what it meant.

Hundreds of more images flash in between these. Marni lunges forward, the golden orb glowing brighter than ever before. The evil tendrils fall away. Her hands clutch both books, and the resulting magical backlash is so strong it throws her backwards into Aggie and Luke's waiting arms.

Cal screams; his dark magic warps the beautiful spell she and her family created, forming a portal and whisking him away.

"He'll be back," Luke murmurs, voice full of loathing.

"And we'll be waiting, _together_," Marni nods. She hands Aggie one of the spellbooks. "Grandma, would you do the honors?"

"Of course," Aggie nods, all business after patting Marni down to check for injuries. "Luke, dear," she murmurs. Luke takes the other side of the heavy binding. Aggie pulls a pair of reading glasses out of thin air.

When the spell breaks, Gwen throws off the hideous swamp demon mask and rushes into her mother's arms.

"Let's go home," Aggie cries.

"Yeah, before someone declares you winner of the costume contest," Marni winks at Luke. Heat fills her cheeks when he grins back.

All day she has despaired over how much time they've wasted, but now time is all they have.

* * *

Astrid walks along arm-in-arm with smelly Gort, trying to convince him of the merits of being happy and social. Orange, yellow, and red fireworks bloom in the night sky. Ghosts glint in the reflection of the sparks. Music clashes with music as different neighborhoods all throw their own celebrations. There's not a bit of gray to be seen.

Marni grins against Luke's shoulder as they whirl in a dance in the middle of Town Square. The courthouse looms over them; the Jack-o-lantern shines down on them, making Luke's red hair seem like flame itself. Several university students are tipsy off squash ale on some hay bales next to them; older creatures with families compete at carnival games, adding to the cacophony of noise. Marni never wants to hear Halloweentown all but silent again.

She shivers, knowing Cal is as yet unvanquished. She remembers that night all those years ago, when Kalabar was defeated. She had never realized that Cal had been watching from the shadows all along.

"Are you cold?" Luke asks. There's a nervous tremor in his hands Marni has been too polite to mention.

"No, I'm alright," Marni smiles, tilting her head back to look up at him. He's not that much taller than her, but dancing seems to make the difference more stark.

"Take my jacket," he says anyway, as she knew he would.

She laughs. "Luke, I have a cloak. I'm fine."

He seems as though he'd like to come back with a witty retort, his blue eyes lingering on the flimsy strings holding her cloak together, when they fall further down to her necklaces, both moonstone and rose quartz.

He frowns, which isn't exactly the reaction she'd been hoping for. "I know what this sort of stone usually means to witches, Marni."

Marni stops dancing. She's fairly certain she stops breathing. Perhaps he had never meant to make such a bold statement after all. "Luke, I-"

"No, wait. I need to say this," he shakes his head. "Marni, when I woke up this morning, you know what I expected to happen today?"

Normally Marni would come back with some snappy, witty reply. Now she shakes her head, stricken mute at the intensity in his eyes, the tension she feels in his shoulders. Her stomach is turning in knots.

"I expected to wake up, and come to your home, and give you that necklace and it mean nothing. I expected to play dumb for the next six days, or six months, or six years, until Cal came to his senses and gave you a necklace to replace mine. I expected for you to pull away from me, or reject it outright. I expected for Aggie to pull me aside and whisper words of encouragement, like she's been doing for several years. I expected you to be in an awful mood when you got back from visiting your mother, and I expected to be sitting on a bale of hay somewhere while a handsome warlock made you laugh under these fireworks."

There's an apology in Marni's throat, a thousand apologies really, and shame so thick it makes her quartz burn red.

Luke notices. Of course he does. The intensity in his eyes softens. "Marni, we've both been idiots. I'm not blameless. I've always placed my insecurities before my feelings for you, and it isn't right. But I feel everything that your necklace means. If you'll still have it, I'd like for you to keep it. I would like you to consider me as a Potential for future mate Marks."

The tears in Marni's eyes spill over. That warm golden magic comes back, circling within her piece of quartz as she pulls a chain out of her pocket. Her palm feels cold without the heat of Luke's shoulder. From the end of the chain dangles an old piece of rose quartz, the magic of many imbuing it with blessings.

"This is the necklace Grandma Aggie gave to Grandpa Tristan. Luke, you're my best friend. You always have been. There's no one I'd rather have with me when my days go so completely wrong I end up in another dimension. There's no one more handsome or strong or magical in my eyes than you," Marni whispers. She can't tell if they've stopped spinning in time to the Monster Mash or if she's just so full of joy and nerves she's dizzy. "If you'll have this, I'd like for you to be recognized as my Potential for mate Marks."

Luke has the chain unclasped and around his neck so quickly Marni barely sees the stone land against his chest before his lips are on hers. Their first kiss sends magical sparks careening throughout Town Square. Cheers and whistles sound; even the Jack-o-lantern seems to glow a little brighter. His body is just as hard and delicious against hers as she imagined it would be, only better, because his lips are soft and his tongue is divine; Marni digs her fingernails into his hips. His Goblin nose doesn't even get in the way; she adores the way it brushes her cheek.

"Happy Halloween," Luke breathes against her cheek when they break apart.

Marni laughs breathlessly and waves to an ecstatic Aggie across the square. Aggie waves back, and quietly passes Harriet a few coins.

* * *

Across the city, in a manor almost as old as the Cromwell home, a young warlock peers through the black lace curtains at the festivities outside.

"Ethan," his father calls, "come join the circle. The Cromwells have sealed their fate; there's much to do before next Halloween."


End file.
